The shared adventures of two friends who love to cook... and drink beer

Monday, January 2, 2012

Breaking news: A new Petco opens in Juneau AK! Here's a recipe for fish!

His name is Mr. Fishy... I know, real original, right?

... It's one that I stole from the Fiddlehead cookbook to fry a lot of halibut one day for Fish & Chips. Note: This recipe is not to be confused with my new Betta fish... he is pretty and blue and is peacefully swimming around the Buddha... but I digress...

If you have ever been to Alaska or have ever thought of going, there are two things you should know:

1. To enjoy Alaska you will need beer. Lots of it. Thankfully it's the state in the nation with more breweries per capita than anywhere else. I'm willing to go so far as to be the world. So drink up muthas!

2. Everything kind of smells like fish. Or bear poop. Take your pick, kinda the same thing. Tends to make you hungry, you know, after all the beer.

I need to throw on one last small note, when thinking of moving here, you may want to, you know, scout out a bit instead of throwing all your earthly possessions in a truck and moving across the country to find out maybe, just maybe, impulse decisions aren't so great.... Yay expensive mistakes! (again, I digress)...

On to the food, which made the 6,000 mile round trip move in 10 days totally worth it (in addition to my insurance company never being able to screw me because I have a current and accurate inventory of all my earthly shit).

What you'll need:
1 c all purpose flour
2 tsp oil (we're dealing with flash points here people, go high temp!)
2 tsp salt
1 cup of beer (drink the rest, and by god use ALASKAN! - if you use Budweiser, I cannot be held responsible for the quality of this dish)
2 egg whites
2 lbs of fish (or whatever you have)

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites til you can hold them over your head and they don't spill out. If you get covered in eggie goodness, try again. And possibly just ask a friend to stand near you. Its good for your hair and all but not entirely great for getting laid....

When it looks right (these will be standard directions, if you have questions, call us... or don't) fold the eggs into the batter.

Cut up the fish to look like, the right size. Somewhere around 2 inches works. Think of gym class, cold pool, banana hammock...

Dip the fish in the batter... oh yeah... feel the goodness.

Lower into some hot cooking oil (375 works). Note: after a few beers, you may want to watch your hands or use tongs. Hot oil is... well... hot. (PS - when using a deep fat fryer with a basket that you bought from Costco, DO NOT raise the basket and place drippy battered fish onto the basket and then lower it in the oil... this will cause all kinds of evil regarding your fish... Do what I figured out later: put the fish nuggets in one at a time with tongs and kind of hold them there for a little bit until the batter firms up... otherwise, you'll have a really bad burned mess to clean up, which is really only good for attracting firemen)

When the fish floats like a guppy at the pet store (but, golden brown and delicious), its good and done. DO NOT EAT IT RIGHT AWAY! Give it to the closest male and say "it might be hot". Drink another beer and laugh!

When he stops cursing, it's probably just right. Dig in!

Serve with lemon, or tartar, or vinegar. Depends on what floats your boat. Either way, that's some good shit.